Stamp Duty paid by builder

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monkeymarbles said:

We've exchanged and one of our incentives is stamp duty. My view is that they still need to pay it over as it's a contractual incentive and clearly mentioned in the contract. I'll wait to see what they say when I ask them!!

I suspect they will suggest that they are still paying the Stamp Duty, even if the duty rate is now 0%.
If the rate had doubled, would you still of expected them to pay??
If they have a clause regarding changes to duty rate, then maybe you have a chance. 

confused1973

Slider said:

monkeymarbles said:

We've exchanged and one of our incentives is stamp duty. My view is that they still need to pay it over as it's a contractual incentive and clearly mentioned in the contract. I'll wait to see what they say when I ask them!!

I suspect they will suggest that they are still paying the Stamp Duty, even if the duty rate is now 0%.
If the rate had doubled, would you still of expected them to pay??
If they have a clause regarding changes to duty rate, then maybe you have a chance. 

On my contract it states a cash figure "stamp duty paid £2747" so don`t know how that stands ?

davidmcn

Slider said:

monkeymarbles said:

We've exchanged and one of our incentives is stamp duty. My view is that they still need to pay it over as it's a contractual incentive and clearly mentioned in the contract. I'll wait to see what they say when I ask them!!

I suspect they will suggest that they are still paying the Stamp Duty, even if the duty rate is now 0%.
If the rate had doubled, would you still of expected them to pay??
If they have a clause regarding changes to duty rate, then maybe you have a chance. 

It's reasonable to expect the discount of £x still to apply, as that's what the developer will have budgeted for. They don't really care what your SDLT liability actually is.

Turning it into a fixed discount in the contract (which appears to be what other people here have had) is the way to avoid arguments.

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confused1973 said:

On my contract it states a cash figure "stamp duty paid £2747" so don`t know how that stands ?

When you say contract, is that the reservation form? or the actual contract of sale of the property, ie the one with your solicitor??

monkeymarbles

Slider said:

monkeymarbles said:

We've exchanged and one of our incentives is stamp duty. My view is that they still need to pay it over as it's a contractual incentive and clearly mentioned in the contract. I'll wait to see what they say when I ask them!!

I suspect they will suggest that they are still paying the Stamp Duty, even if the duty rate is now 0%.
If the rate had doubled, would you still of expected them to pay??
If they have a clause regarding changes to duty rate, then maybe you have a chance. 

Hi - the contract states they will pay a stamp duty contribution of £X so for me that is a cash incentive. If it had gone up I wouldn't expect them to pay, no. Plus if it had gone up, they normally waive people who have exchanged - they did last 2 times.

confused1973

The one with the solicitor and it also appears on our mortgage offer 

ChloeHanlon22

On the paperwork we signed we agreed an incentive to buy the property was to pay stamp duty of ‘up to £15,000’. So I’m not sure where we stand. The annoying thing was they wanted to throw in loads of extras instead of the stamp duty, but we went for stamp duty. If only we knew! 

OldMusicGuy

Builders DO NOT pay stamp duty. The buyer does. Any cash incentive is just that, builders/developers say they pay some/all of your stamp duty to give you a discount without having to reduce the selling price. When you complete, any "stamp duty" incentive is deducted from the money you owe the builder. The buyer's solicitor pays whatever Stamp Duty is due on the buyer's behalf to the government.

Anyone that has agreed to this should have it in writing that their builder will pay an £x000 contribution to stamp duty. The builder can't go back on that (unless you agree to it). If you don't have it agreed in writing with a specific amount, then I'm not sure where you stand.

The big question is will the SDLT holiday apply to transactions that are already underway.   

jon81uk

OldMusicGuy said:

The big question is will the SDLT holiday apply to transactions that are already underway.   

Thats not a big question, stamp duty applies at completion and should be paid to HMRC within 14 days. The change came into effect midnight 8 July. So if you are completing today or later then you don't pay SDLT on up any property under £500k.

OldMusicGuy

jon81uk said:

Thats not a big question, stamp duty applies at completion and should be paid to HMRC within 14 days. The change came into effect midnight 8 July. So if you are completing today or later then you don't pay SDLT on up any property under £500k.

Yup, since I posted that answer I found the SDLT calculator on the Gov.uk site has been updated and the new rates apply to completion from 8 July.